Chapter 413. The Murim's Poison Master (4)

I now understand that when masters of different fields work together, they can create truly absurd outcomes,

thought Zhou Xuchuan while staring at the cold iron door right before his eyes. He didn't even have to investigate who worked with whom to figure out what happened.

"I'm opening the door, everyone."

Creaaak...

As if to prove how heavy it was, the cold iron door squeaked noisily and rose up into the wall.

"

Heoph!

"

The Gold Will Sword Sect warriors, who had at least studied a little bit of trap mechanisms in preparation for moments like this, sucked in their breaths at the spectacle waiting for them beyond the open doorway.

Even Tang Hui deeply scowled in displeasure. "Rather merciless, isn't it?"

Mmountains of corpses and oceans of blood! That was the only way to describe what they saw. The interior of the labyrinth was a scene of messy death. It had been a while since the last of the wretched screams ringing throughout the plains died down.

They couldn't see a single living soul, only corpses. If the Blood Cult were here to witness this sight, its members would cry out in elation.

"Is it all over?" Zhou Xuchuan muttered while stepping beyond the doorway. Even though he was well aware of who had designed this trap, he still couldn't lower his guard. "The great army of three thousand should have triggered most of the traps by now, but still, don't carelessly touch anything."

Tang Hui scanned her surroundings warily before raising her hand to stop the rest of the group beyond the doorway from entering the labyrinth. "Don't follow us in and wait there."

If she were being brutally honest, only the true experts wouldn't get in their way. Tang Hui wasn't one, but she had already heard about this place from Zhuge Shengji. Besides, protecting her was well within Zhou Xuchuan's capabilities, anyway.

"..."

Zhou Xuchuan stopped walking and focused on his five senses. Hundreds of stone pillars blocked his view, so he instead focused on his hearing. Not too long afterward, he found the information he had been looking for.

Zhou Xuchuan leisurely headed to his next destination. He seemed like a man on a stroll at a casual glance, but there were no openings to his movements.

Click.

When his foot touched the ground next, he triggered something, and small holes opened up on the stone pillars standing on both sides.

Phew-phew-phew-phew-phew!

Dozens of poison-tipped needles too thin to be seen with the naked eye flew toward him. However, not a single one could touch him. Even before he could show off the power of Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity, his defensive qi barrier simply deflected them all.

"Give me a break..." Tang Hui watched this spectacle in dismay.

Zhou Xuchuan looked back at her. "What's the matter?"

"

Oh

, it's nothing. I've just gotten a fresh reminder of how much of a monster you really are," Tang Hui replied nonchalantly. "Yes, that was a lot of poison-tipped needles, but it's not like a Harmony Realm expert attacked you with vajra qi or something, so why the defensive qi barrier? I can now tell why people used to call you with the nickname of 'All Bark and No Bite.'"

Even the experts at the Harmony Realm, often referred to as the zenith of martial arts, wouldn't be able to withstand the power of the Underground Labyrinth.

One or two traps wouldn't pose much of a problem to such an expert. It was all was because items not crafted from materials as absurd as cold iron, specifically Ten-Thousand-Year Cold Iron, wouldn't stand a chance against vajra qi.

As long as a defensive qi barrier was active, an expert would be safe even while facing a barrage of thousands of arrows. And they could also easily smash apart all sorts of spinning blades coming their way.

However, it also had a drawback to match its advantages—the extreme level of qi expenditure. Even a Harmony Realm expert couldn't activate vajra qi freely and without care. That was doubly true for the defensive qi barrier.

"As long as they have enough qi reserves, anyone can—"

Whoosh!

Tang Hui flinched just then. Zhou Xuchuan walking up ahead had abruptly stopped talking and turned around all of a sudden. Tang Hui didn't even have the chance to ask what was wrong. In fact, she was so taken aback that she didn't even realize what had happened.

Zhou Xuchuan reached out to snatch up Tang Hui's arm, and then he pulled her into an embrace to protect her from harm.

Fwhoosh!

At the same time, he punched forward with his left fist. Not only was the speed of that punch something else, but even the power contained within was nothing to scoff at.

BOOM!

"I've been wondering why my blind spot has been itching ever since I entered this place, but here you are. Your insidious nature still hasn't changed, Avaricious Wolf," said Zhou Xuchuan, an icy smirk etched on his face.

His fist was pushing against a palm. On the opposite side of him was Tang Mingren, and his eyes were blinking furiously in disbelief.

"How is this possible?" he muttered, his voice filled with disbelief and shock.

Zhou Xuchuan coldly retorted, "Once was enough. I won't fall for the same trick twice."

His instinct was proven right. Tang Mingren wouldn't die so easily, and his nature meant that he'd try to exploit the opening to attack like the last time.

Tang Mingren incredulously asked, "The Extreme Formless Poison doesn't work on you?"

What made the Extreme Formless Poison so terrifying was that one wouldn't know that they had been poisoned until the symptoms appeared. They also wouldn't know how powerful the poison itself was until then. Even an absolute master at the Coruscant Realm would at least suffer from paralysis unless they specialized in poison-related cultivation.

Tang Mingren knew that, as he had exploited that very fact to destroy Zhou Xuchuan's heart back then!

"It's not just the Extreme Formless Poison," Zhou Xuchuan quietly growled. "No poison works on me now, Tang Mingren."

"

Cough!

"

Tang Mingren vomited out a mouthful of blood.

The Extreme Formless Poison was difficult to handle correctly. Even the caster could die if they made a mistake somewhere. Tang Mingren was no exception.

After failing to reach the target, the Extreme Formless Poison circulated back and returned to its original caster. Tang Mingren might be an unrivaled genius when it came to poisoncraft, but a man who hadn't reached the realm of Coruscant wouldn't be able to survive the backlash.

"

Hah

..." A hollow chuckle leaked out of Tang Mingren's lips. "The Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity, is it?"

"That's right."

The palm pressing against Zhou Xuchuan's fist rapidly lost strength. Tang Mingren's legs visibly quivered. Even his circulation of qi had stuttered to a halt.

"I... don't understand this."

Tang Mingren powerlessly stumbled back.

Zhou Xuchuan let Tang Hui go from his embrace.

"If what you say is true, how did you get poisoned back then?"

"Back then, I didn't have that immunity."

Tang Mingren grimaced. "Do you even know what you're saying? You can't just acquire the Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity because you want to!"

The Thousand Poisons Immunity alone was enough to raise much hullabaloo, so imagine how much more of a fuss the Ten Thousand Poisons Immunity would cause. It was a constitution only heard of in legends.

One's constitution was something one was born with, after all!

Poisons rarely worked against experts because they could burn the foreign impurities away with their qi or even block out poisons altogether from entering them. There was a reason the Tang Family was so hell-bent on making Zhou Xuchuan their son-in-law!

'Well, it's possible to acquire it if you consume heavenly elixirs and neidans. You can also master a high-level poison-related cultivation technique and make some breakthroughs.'

Instead of clarifying what happened, Zhou Xuchuan chose not to say anything. He didn't want to carelessly divulge any secrets, as a Dark Heavens Association survivor could be hiding among the corpses of their comrades.

Besides, if the news of the Sword God Zhou Xuchuan, not the Domination God Monarch, mastering a poison-related cultivation technique were to spread, that would cause a serious headache for him, too.

Instead, Zhou Xuchuan said, "If you—no, if the Dark Heavens Association thinks it knows everything about this world, that it is the only truth of our world, I can tell you right now that you're gravely mistaken."

"..."

Tang Mingren immediately realized that Zhou Xuchuan would never be truthful with him. Any further questioning would be pointless, so he didn't bother saying anything else.

"Tang Mingren. It's not as if I don't understand your actions," said Zhou Xuchuan.

Even before becoming an adult, Tang Mingren was taught to embrace the hidden darkness of the

murim

. He was forced into accepting it. Rather than enjoying the love of his parents, he received training in torturing people. Anyone should be able to see how wrong that was.

"However, nothing can justify your actions. And I cannot agree or sympathize with you."

The Dark Heavens Association was the evilest, vilest organization the likes of which the world had never seen before. All the claims about how rotten the

murim

was or how the current society needed to be changed sounded like nice ideals, but they were nothing more than pretexts used by the organization to reach its goal.

"Tang Hui," Zhou Xuchuan called out while unsheathing his sword. "If you have something to say to him, now is the time."

He saw no point in keeping Tang Mingren alive as a hostage or to extract information. A man who served as the leader of the Black Shadow Division definitely boasted a high degree of pain tolerance, so torturing him would be a waste of time.

Besides, this man was the Dark Heavens Association's Avaricious Wolf. Someone like that would never be a pushover. The odds of him giving up false information to make his enemies suffer were quite high.

Zhou Xuchuan didn't believe in

maybes

when it came to the Dark Heavens Association executives. Even if there was a chance, he still saw no need to take the risk. If it hadn't been for Tang Hui, he would have already beheaded Tang Mingren.

"..."

The two children of the Tang family bloodline stared at each other. Whether it was Tang Mingren or Tang Hui, neither of them revealed their true emotions, simply taking in each other's sights through their somewhat forlorn gazes.

This mood-souring silence was eventually shattered by Tang Hui.

"Maybe I have—"

In a time so long ago, Tang Mingren was her idol. After all, he was the most outstanding genius, a true talent, of the Tang Family. Not only to his acquaintances, but even to his family members, he was untouchable. The same story applied to Tang Hui as well.

Whenever she sobered up to look, she would always stare at his distant back that was getting further and further away.

"—Admired you."

There was no such thing as hatred or anger hot enough to burn her. She also didn't look at her older brother with contempt reserved for excrement, either.

"I'm sorry for disappointing you," said Tang Mingren. He, too, remained composed. Despite his young age, wrinkles lining his face looked especially deep.

"I... wanted to ask you about something."

The little sister was now asking her older brother.

"The Poison Cloud Group Dance. Did you create that,

orabeoni?

"

Tang Mingren's expression was dyed in surprise just then. However, it was unknown if his reaction was due to the intention behind her question or if she had used a term of endearment that made him recall the pleasant memories of the past.

His expression quickly reverted to how it was before anyone could read his true emotion. He slowly shook his head. "No. I merely took what already existed in the Black Shadow Division and used it."

"I... see."

As if she had accepted that reply, Tang Hui turned around to leave.

"I'm leaving first."

With her back turned, Zhou Xuchuan couldn't see her expression, but he still thought that she cut a forlorn figure.

"Zhou Xuchuan."

When Tang Mingren called out, Zhou Xuchuan shifted his gaze away from the sister to her brother. He then pressed his sword against Tang Mingren's chest, which was caked in someone else's blood.

"I thank you for giving me enough time."

For some reason, Tang Mingren seemed at ease now. The dark spots below his eyes and all the wrinkles not fitting for his age still lined his face, yet his overall complexion was somewhat brighter.

"How regretful..."

The blade sank deeper past the clothes; flesh and muscles split apart.

"That I never... got to see that child escape... from her fate and live her life..."

"...!"

Zhou Xuchuan's eyes opened wide. "Could it be that you...?"

"Zhou Xuchuan," Tang Mingren muttered weakly. "Light will inevitably produce shadows. As was the case with Nangong Weiwu, someone will find a need for her skills and come for her. Because there's no other way. So I reset her fate for now. That's what necessary evil means."

Tang Mingren's vision grew blurrier. His consciousness was fading. His lips cracked apart like a desert.

"However, no matter what you try, history will repeat itself. But someone still has to remind everyone how dangerous it is to turn their eyes away from all the filth and how stupid it is to dump the responsibility on other people's shoulders."

A hint of a sneer floated up on Tang Mingren's lips.

"At the very least... that must be stopped. We must stop... someone getting corrupted by power and committing unmentionable... acts..."

"You're sorely mistaken if you think I'll sympathize with you," said Zhou Xuchuan.

Whatever Tang Mingren's true goal was, his actions were still evil. Fighting for someone's sake wasn't a good enough justification. And that monologue failed to rouse even a hint of sympathy from Zhou Xuchuan.

"You're... wrong. I don't... want to make excuses. No justifications, either. It's merely... a... warning."

Tang Mingren's breathing grew shallower and shallower.

"I am... evil and... poison."

His eyelids grew heavier. So heavy that he could no longer keep them open.

"I am the... shadow of the Martial Alliance, and... the Righteous faction's... poison."

He remembered the days he spent as a carefree youngster playing and enjoying life with a certain someone.

"I am... the Poison Master, Tang Mingren..."